According to Statista, Instagram Stories have 300 million active users every day. As a business, you cannot ignore Instagram Stories as it gives you the potential to engage with a larger audience. Since the introduction of this content with a 24-hour lifespan, it has gone on to become one of the most popular features of Instagram. 

Instagram Stories are a great way to market your business to your target audience as it is addictive. It also makes your business look authentic, which will have a positive influence on the consumer trust. To help you make the most out of this type of content, here are four great tips:

Offer discounts and giveaways

If you are looking for a way to drive traffic to your official website or generate interest for your products and services, you should use Instagram Stories. For example, when you are going through an Instagram Story, you will always find users asking you to “swipe up for more information”. In other words, you can link this action to your official website, which will drive traffic to it automatically. 

The best way to go about this is to offer discounts to your target audience only through Instagram stories. Another technique is to have giveaways, which will generate a significant amount of interest. When you don’t have anything of value (in content), your users will just swipe past your Instagram Story. 

Supplement stories with Instagram Live

You may be wondering why you should go live when you are already using Instagram Stories. The greatest advantage of Instagram Live is that it notifies all your followers that you started one. As a result of this, more users will tune in to your Instagram Live, allowing you to utilize it for marketing your products and services. 

You can use Instagram Live to give users a sneak peek of what happens behind the scenes in your business. It builds trust and engagement rates, which will have a positive impact on your business. You can also upload Instagram Live with your story if you don’t want your users to miss out on any important information.

Reuse content from other channels

As Instagram Stories are temporary, you have the liberty of reusing all your content from other channels such as Facebook and Snapchat. It allows you to maintain your consistency in uploading content without having a negative impact on engagement rates. However, keep in mind that you should mix with fresh content to keep your target audience engaged at all times.

Utilize hashtags, location, and mentions appropriately

Instagram Stories allows you to widen your marketing reach through hashtags, mentions, and location tags. Hashtags allow you to direct people to posts that are related to your Instagram Stories. For best effect, you should use personal hashtags, as your target audience will only get to see posts about your business.

As location tags improve your discoverability, you should use it frequently. When your target audience is checking into your location, there are much higher chances of them discovering your business. Last but not the least, mentions allow you to give shout-outs to partnering brands and loyal fans. 

Use these four tips to make the most of Instagram Stories as your marketing tool!

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